Acer took on Dell - and won!

According to the latest report of market researcher Gartner, the regions Asia/ Pacific and U.S. show more obvious signs of PC recovery. The EMEA region on the other hand shows ongoing weakness.

The PC industry performed better than expected as worldwide PC shipments totaled 80.9 million units in the 3Q/2009, a 0.5% increase from the 3Q/2008, according to preliminary results by Gartner. Gartner had expected PC shipments to decline 5.6% in the quarter.
“These are good results especially given that PC shipments for the 3Q/2009 are being compared to a very strong 3Q/2008,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “Sequentially, third quarter shipments grew 18%, which is higher than the historical seasonal growth from the second to third quarter.”
Hewlett-Packard continued to lead the worldwide PC market as its shipment growth exceeded the worldwide average (see Table 1). HP did well in Asia/Pacific, particularly in China. In the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, HP’s shipments declined, but it was less of a drop compared to the EMEA average.
Regional Breakout
After three consecutive quarters of year-on-year shipment declines, PC shipments in the U.S. totalled 17.8 million units in the third quarter of 2009, a 3.9% increase from the third quarter of last year. Dell maintained its No. 1 position in PC shipments in the U.S., however its shipments declined 8.9% in the quarter. Gartner analysts said this could be attributed to Dell emphasizing profit protection rather than market share expansion.
The EMEA PC market had a double-digit decline for the third quarter of 2009. PC shipments in EMEA totalled 26 million units, a 10.1% decrease from the same period in 2008. Central Eastern Europe was the weakest area, followed by Western Europe and then Middle East and Africa. The professional market continued to be weak in both the desk-based and mobile PC segments. The mobile consumer market kept the Western Europe market buoyed and again mini-notebook share increased as most of the vendors drove higher volumes.
PC shipments in Asia/Pacific registered 25.2 million units in the 3Q/2009, a 16.1% increase from the 3Q/2008. This strong rebound was primarily attributed to the surge in PC shipments in China and emerging markets in South East Asia that registered strong double-digit growth rates. The PC market in China is estimated to have grown 28.5% in the 3Q/2009.
In Latin America, PC shipments totalled 6.9 million units in the 3Q/2009, a decline of 3.9%, from the same period last year. This is the last quarter of expected contraction. Fourth quarter unit shipments this year are expected to grow at 29.6%. Much of this has to do with the fact that PC shipments in the fourth quarter last year were so low. However, the generally improving economic scenario in Latin America and the likely strong fourth quarter holiday sales season should also drive growth.
PC shipments in Japan totalled 3.2 million units in the 3Q/2009, a 15.1% decline. Both the professional and consumer markets were weak. The consumer market declined 13.8% in the quarter, after nine consecutive quarters of year-on-year growth.